J.K. Rowling blasts Trump as 'monster of narcissism'

J.K. Rowling has never been quiet about her distaste for President Donald Trump. Way back in 2015, even before he was in the White House, Rowling called Trump more evil than her iconic literary villain, Lord Voldemort. The Harry Potter author renewed her assault on Friday when video of the president refusing to shake hands with a child using a wheelchair started making the rounds on Twitter. Rowling initially posted the video alongside a Maya Angelou quote (“when people show you who they really are, believe them”) and then elaborated on her criticism in subsequent tweets.

“This monster of narcissism values only himself and his pale reflections,” Rowling wrote over the course of multiple tweets. “The disabled, minorities, transgender people, the poor, women … (unless related to him by ties of blood, and therefore his creations) are treated with contempt, because they do not resemble Trump.”

The issue was personal for Rowling; as she explained, her mother had used a wheelchair. But she also made clear her criticism of Trump extended beyond her own experience.

“So, yes, that clip of Trump looking deliberately over a disabled child’s head, ignoring his outstretched hand, has touched me on the raw,” Rowling tweeted. “That man occupies the most powerful office in the free world and his daily outrages against civilized norms are having a corrosive effect.”

This line is only the latest iteration of Rowling’s beef with Trump. After Trump tweeted about the “fake media” in May, Rowling hit him with an Alice in Wonderland quote. Later that month, when Trump elbowed a fellow NATO leader out of the way for better photo-op positioning, Rowling called him a “tiny, tiny, tiny little man.” When Trump tweeted controversially about the London terrorist attack in June, Rowling responded by calling him “an alarmist blowhard.” When the president’s feud with Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough heated up again later that month, Rowling quoted Abraham Lincoln: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”